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UC Berkeley School of Law Library UC Berkeley School of Law Library BerkeleyLaw Library

Student Journals: Journal Production Checklist

Production Checklist

The Journal Production Checklist summarizes the steps of what and when things need to be submitted to the Journal Administrator during the production process.

Following the Production Checklist helps to ensure that when you are finally ready to submit your files to printer, the Administrator has everything in place to provide the printer with the necessary information to begin processing your files and printing and distributing the completed journal.

Extensive information on each of the steps can be found in Publishing Links to the left!

There are two versions of the Checklist, one for print journals, one for online-only.  Most of the steps are the same.

STEP 1: TABLE OF CONTENTS

As soon as articles for an issue have been selected:

  • Create a Word doc of article titles and authors and email to Journal Administrator, Journals@law.berkeley.edu.
  • If any articles/authors are added, cut, or moved to a later issue, you will need to convey this information to the Journal Administrator as soon as possible.

STEP 2: AUTHOR COPYRIGHT AGREEMENTS

As soon as an article is slotted, begin Author Copyright Agreement Process by determining which of the three agreement type is appropriate.

  • Create an agreement for each author, using  the appropriate template:
    • Author (Assignment) Agreements- Author assigns the copyright to UC Regents. Unilateral agreement which can be emailed directly to the author for signature.
    • Online (Assignment) Agreement- Similar to Author Assignment Agreement, but omits verbiage providing authors with offprints or copies of a print issue.
    • Author Licensing Agreements- Author retains copyright to his/her article and licenses its use to the Regents of the University of California.  Signed first by the author, and then countersigned by the Business Contracts Officer.
  • Prior to forwarding the Agreement to the author, edit the template with the author name / article title/ and issue specific information and send to each  author, making sure to include the special cover letter text, providing instructions and important information about online publishing.
     
  • Updated journal-specific Author Agreements can be found in the Forms Library >  Publishing and Production tab

A fully executed agreement is mandatory for each publishing author – no article may be published until a signed agreement for each author is in place.

Step 3: PRODUCTION PROCESS - MACROS

  • After you’ve completed the editing of the article in Word, apply your journal’s formatting macro so that the final version formatting is applied to document.
  • Contact Maro Vidal-Manou for training on how to use your journal's macro
  • Once you have applied the macro, you will have the approximate article page count

STEP 4: AUTHOR OFFPRINT ORDERS (print journals only)

Once you have completed the editing of the files and applied the formatting macro, you will have the approximate article page count and can being the Offprint Order Process:

  • Email the journal-specific Offprint Order Form to the author along with the article page count (one offprint form per article! – if there are multiple authors, send the form to first-listed author who should then place a single order on behalf of all co-authors).
  • Authors must return the form even if not ordering additional offprints, as the form contains the author’s address and contact information for shipping complimentary offprints/ copies of the issue.
  • Offprint forms are Journal specific, and some journals have various offers based upon whether it is an article, book review, student piece.  
  • Updated journal-specific Offprint Forms can be found in the Forms Library > Publishing and Production tab

STEP 5: CHECK IN WITH THE JOURNAL ADMINISTRATOR

Throughout the production process, but especially in the two weeks prior to submitting files to the printer (for online-only journals, prior to posting content on the Scholarship Repository or your website):

  • Contact the Journal Administrator to confirm that the required paperwork is in order:
    • copyright agreements in place for each author
    • author offprint order form in place for each article (print journals)
  • If there is any missing paperwork, follow up with authors; files cannot be submitted to the printer until all paperwork is received.
  • Inform the Journal Administrator of any special instructions for the issue, such as increase in print quantity or special inserts, so the print order can be completed.
  • The Administrator will finalize the Print Order, which includes issue specifications including quantities to print, author offprint order information, and serves as authorization for the printer to work on the files.

STEP 6: FINAL REVIEW OF ARTICLE FILES

Prior to submitting your pdf files to the printer:

  • Print out and carefully proofread each of your article PDFs - identify and correct errors and inconsistencies (format, page numbers, author name spelling, running heads, etc)
  • Refer to the List of Common Errors for a helpeful guide.
  • Once files have been submitted to the printer, you will be charged for any additional corrections or edits, and will go through multiple rounds of contract proofs, delaying the printing of the issue and increasing the final cost of your issue.

ONLINE-ONLY JOURNALS skip to step 10

Steps 7-9 are for print journals.   Online-only journals can skip directly to Step 10.

STEP 7: SUBMIT FILES TO THE PRINTER

When you are ready to submit your files to the printer:

  • Email the Journal Administrator two days prior to confirm that the Print Order for your issue is also ready to be submitted.  The printer will not begin review of your files until they have received the Print Order from the Journal Administrator.
  • Submit your files via email to both Mary Carlson, carlsonm@christensen.com, and the Order Desk, order.desk@christensen.com, also copying the Journal Administrator, journals@law.berkeley.edu:
    • PDF files of each article
    • Order of Materials Form
    • Word files of frontmatter files formatted by printer (journal-specific, contact Mary with any questions)
  • The Journal Administrator will submit the Print Order at that time, authorizing the printer to begin processing your files for the contract proof.

STEP 8: CONTRACT PROOFS

Contract proofs are processed in 5 working days  and shipped via UPS overnight mail to the journal mailboxes in the Student Center.

  • Contract proofs show exactly how the pages will appear in the journal.  They must be reviewed carefully and thoroughly.
  • The proof will be accompanied by an Error Memo- which lists any obvious formatting, pagination, and footnote inconsistencies noticed by the printer while processing your files.  The Error Memo is not comprehensive, and thus does not replace your close review.
  • Make any corrections to the Word versions of the pages/ files, change into pdfs, and resubmit corrected files via email to Mary.
  • Subsequent rounds of contract proofs will be generated and emailed to you for review.  This process will continue until all corrections have been made.
  • Journal Administrator will submit the subscription mailing label files and Address Verification Form to the printer.

STEP 9: PRINTING AND SHIPPING THE ISSUE

Once all corrections have been made to the contract proof:

  • Sign and submit the Authorization to Print  (included with your contract proofs).   The printer will schedule an issue print date.   
  • After an issue has been printed, copies will be distributed to the journal, subscribers, and authors' offprint orders will be printed and shipped

 

STEP 10: FINAL STEPS uploading final files

Once the article files are finalized, there are a few final steps:

  • Print Journals should email final article Word doc files to driverk@christensen.com, and they'll be uploaded to Lexis and Westlaw.     (Online-only journals content will be uploaded to our online content providers from their pages on the Repository, and do not have to send them to the printer).
  • Email the final pdf version of each article to the authors.  As a courtesy, and also to let them know that the final okay to print has been given and that they can expect their complimentary copies of the issue (and offprints) a few weeks after the completion date.
  • Both print AND online-only journals should upload final pdfs of articles to your Journal page on the BerkeleyLaw Scholarship Repository. 
          Crop final pdfs to exclude print guide and banner lines prior to posting
           Forward cropped files and frontmatter to Maro Vidal-Manou to initiate the uploading of content
          Contact Bepress or Joe Cera with questions regarding editor access or uploading content
  • Upload final Word and pdfs of your articles to your Journal’s Shared Drive, along with Author Agreements and any other relevant files.